To have celebrity would be about the last thing on my wish list. How unfortunate that some depend on it for their bread and butter. If you remove the question of celebrity from the story you get a much clearer picture of the problem. Forget your own prejudices about Mr. Gibson and look at the fact that he is an alcoholic. Anyone who has had a family member or, God forbid, themselves have been/are an alcoholic recognizes the self-destructive and abysmally embarrassing behavior. My sympathies go out to anyone who suffers this blight. It was one of the things, if not THE thing, that inspired Prohibition. It is a fact that a certain per centage of the population will become addicted to alcohol if they ever take a drink. It is a powerful grip that never goes away and can only be defeated by total abstinence.

That stupid behavior follows is a given. People this deep under the influence say things that are 180 degrees from their conscious beliefs. They can and do physically attack loved ones, assualt police officers, drive wantonly, recklessly, walk about in public naked, commit murder. Name it. It's been done. Since Man discovered alcohol society has attempted to deal with the problem.

And a word about the prejudices which we have ALL grown up with. We've heard them in our earliest experiences. We hear it from our own family members, other kids at school and in our society and culture. There are racial and ethnic prejudices. There are economic and intellectual prjudices. I think in this day and age we are pretty sensitized to prejudice but they are still there, floating around in our subconcious, if no where else. And they pop out at the worst times. Just ask some of our politicians. Emily Dickenson said "The soul selects it's own society, Then shuts the door." and this is true for the good or the bad. We all have our own criteria for association. No one is a friend to everyone nor is anyone the enemy of everyone (with qualification, of course). I especially feel for folks who grew up in the South where, in living memory, racism was an accepted way of life. The many who have come to the enlightenment that black people are people too and are in equal standing before the law and before God, make a concious effort to refrain from hurting someone with a unintended remark or some slip of the lip. I feel sorry for people of color who grow up being taught to hate white people. And I can't understand why or how the Jewish people are considered to be the blame of so much evil. And yet we hear it and like hearing filthy language at an early age it finds a place in our minds and it can come out in moments of stress, pain, sickness as well as self induced impairment.

I am reminded when certain religious leaders sought to entrap Christ when they presented to Him a woman taken in adultry. He said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Mr. Gibson's celebrity only clouds the issue. Whether you agree with his politics or his religious point of view is a matter for discussion elsewhere and on their own merits. He is a man afflicted with alcoholism and he will suffer all that may entail for the rest of his life. However his addiction does NOT excuse or even mitigate his behavior. For that he must be responsible. But he has a difficult life-problem that many of us will thankfully never fully understand. He too is a human being and a day may come in your own life when you need someone to care for you aside from your foibles and follies.